Back in the June of '59, Mad Magazine nailed the habits of hipsters more than a half century ago. Magic Carpet Burn scanned it.
The menu is particularly funny. Sweet potato fries! What will they come up with next?
Friday, December 31, 2010
In search of the proto-hipster
Back in the June of '59, Mad Magazine nailed the habits of hipsters more than a half century ago. Magic Carpet Burn scanned it.
The menu is particularly funny. Sweet potato fries! What will they come up with next?
Monday, December 27, 2010
Top Ten Gallery Blag Tips
An article I wrote (well, really, a top ten list of snarky half-advice) is up at FreeStuffin.com.
Click through so it looks like I'm popular!
Click through so it looks like I'm popular!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Alter Native
My pal Colin and his buddies have a podcast. Expect (and receive) lots of Pearl Jam. But it's pretty good.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Peanut butter in my chocolate
Wavvment's album Radical Summer for free. Fuzzy, blown out, noisy hum. Used to call it shoegaze, right? Then shoegaze got all pretty. Then they called it shitgaze, which is OK, I guess.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Botanists, get on this
A citrus tree where, if you let them keep going, the limes turn into lemons, the lemons turn into oranges and the oranges turn into grapefruits.
DO THIS FOR ME SCIENCE!
DO THIS FOR ME SCIENCE!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
John Boehner, Ooompa Loompa
Boehner's better known for his weeping these days, a trait that will no doubt assume metaphorical proportions in accounts of him after death, but something that's always struck me is just how amazingly fake his tan is.
I live in California now, but I come from the Midwest, specifically Ann Arbor, which might be the locus for fake tanning —a healthy population of East Coast girls whose exile to Michigan won't keep them from looking like Snooki means that you see plenty of orange-ringed Juicy Couture sweatshirts. And while Indiana's a smidge sunnier, there's no way that Boehner's getting his rays there (and even his proposed two-month winter vacation couldn't get him that orange). At least Rex Hamilton comes by his wallet face honestly.
Boehner denies that his tan is faked, saying that he's never used a product nor a tanning bed; he's just naturally so orange he could be sold by highway exits.
It's just weird to me that the Tea Party doesn't get all wound up about the ridiculous, pompous, fake-baked Republicans… If they were just anti-incumbent and anti-elitist, they'd have pitchforks out for this Oompa Loompa already.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Learn something!
Dahrendorf, The Modern Social Conflict, for free on googlebooks.
I'm only really digging this because I had to print my copy out from an online coursepack a couple years ago, and it was all skewed and everything because the prof was an adjunct so didn't have a grad student to do all his scanning.
I'm only really digging this because I had to print my copy out from an online coursepack a couple years ago, and it was all skewed and everything because the prof was an adjunct so didn't have a grad student to do all his scanning.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Pentax K10d User Manual
I went looking for the Pentax k10d user manual, and it was a pain in the ass to find — the official sites had some sort of error where I was only getting 18k of an (apparently) 5mb file, so I braved the weird Geocities-on-crack file hosters that I saw this file on. It had a 30 or so character numeric string for a file name, so I figured that I'd rename it, upload it to Mediafire, and share it here.
So, Pentax k10d user manual.
So, Pentax k10d user manual.
ZOMG NEW CAMERA
Last night, I ran into Bob (NYT) and he gave me a pretty amazing Birthmas present: a Pentax K10D, my first DSLR.
I got to screw around with it last night, but so far, the only way that I've been able to get useable files off of it is by opening files in Preview and resaving them as PSDs, because for some reason, though both ImageReady and Photoshop say they can open DNGs, when I try to open these DNGs I get weird incorrect file type errors. I know that there's probably a way to save the DNGs in the camera as JPG or something, but I haven't been able to find the manual yet (the top links on google are all 404ed for the actual download).
Still, it's got a fast kit lens (18-55) on it, and once I can figure out how to go to manual focus, it'll be a lot of fun. I already took some pictures last night that I think will look pretty nice at a modest size. And I easily took over 36 shots last night, which'd be over $15 to develop and scan. I'm already ahead!
I got to screw around with it last night, but so far, the only way that I've been able to get useable files off of it is by opening files in Preview and resaving them as PSDs, because for some reason, though both ImageReady and Photoshop say they can open DNGs, when I try to open these DNGs I get weird incorrect file type errors. I know that there's probably a way to save the DNGs in the camera as JPG or something, but I haven't been able to find the manual yet (the top links on google are all 404ed for the actual download).
Still, it's got a fast kit lens (18-55) on it, and once I can figure out how to go to manual focus, it'll be a lot of fun. I already took some pictures last night that I think will look pretty nice at a modest size. And I easily took over 36 shots last night, which'd be over $15 to develop and scan. I'm already ahead!
Friday, December 10, 2010
In which I answer surveys for money
Not a lot of money, honestly, but some at least. And it goes directly to pay off student loans. Whee!
This one was a commercial from Keystone, and the first question (after making me watch it twice) was to explain what happened:
Two dudes were playing with their cells at a party, boring the attractive women. The women left. Keith Stone stares at his can, making a Geico Caveman face. He then pulls two sticks out of his butt and begins to whack at the cans, producing a totally implausible steel drum medley (which reminds me to smoke pot, not drink beer). Then some woman riding in a monster truck sees this, decides she has nothing better to do with her life and regards Keith Stone's smoothness, which he apparently demonstrated somewhere else (because it's not in the commercial). Keith Stone drinks his Keystone and then wakes up, alone and despondent (implied).
Apart from the name and the product, what made you realize it was Keystone Light?
Well, there's Keith Stone, who when I first saw him a couple months ago, I thought was a real country star doing endorsement shots for Keystone. It's the sort of thing that mercenary country stars do, sell their reputations for cheap beer because they hold their fans in a fairly fundamental contempt.
But that's about it. Why not just have everyone else get Bitter Beer Face? I mean, that was at least honest about what Keystone is: beer for people who hate the taste of beer, but can't come up with another way to get drunk slowly.
If you had just seen the commercial and were drinking Keystone Light, how would you feel?
In order to get to that point, I have to assume an epic rager, in which not only have I been drinking for hours, but that it's past the time when anyone could go out and get more beers. So, here we are with that case of Keystone somebody brought and then left (regifted, likely) and I'm drinking Keystone, because what the hell, I'm eight beers in and won't taste it. Then the commercial comes on, and I look at the beer in my hand and realize just then it's a Keystone, because I thought it was Milwaulkee's Best or something, and think, Well, not a single woman I know would go for that greasy hobo, so thank God everyone's so drunk that nobody will remember me drinking this swill.
What does the slogan "Keystone Light: Always Smooth" mean to you, based on the commercial?
Cheap beer. "Smooth" isn't really something to be celebrated in beer, except ironically. You've almost got the irony down with the Keith Stone guy, but you should take it up a notch and use Smoov B from the Onion. It'd be making fun of the "smoothness," turning a detriment into an asset. Instead, it's sort of a fratty generic ad with no actual smoothness. Also, why does Keith Stone have a Spanish accent for only one of his lines? What's that about?
You've answered: Keith Stone is 'not at all smooth.' What makes him 'not at all smooth'?
The lack of positive smoothness.
And then after all that, I get a stupid message about how high volume won't let them process my replies, but that I've already responded. Ah well, at least it's here so random Keystone googlers can find it.
This one was a commercial from Keystone, and the first question (after making me watch it twice) was to explain what happened:
Two dudes were playing with their cells at a party, boring the attractive women. The women left. Keith Stone stares at his can, making a Geico Caveman face. He then pulls two sticks out of his butt and begins to whack at the cans, producing a totally implausible steel drum medley (which reminds me to smoke pot, not drink beer). Then some woman riding in a monster truck sees this, decides she has nothing better to do with her life and regards Keith Stone's smoothness, which he apparently demonstrated somewhere else (because it's not in the commercial). Keith Stone drinks his Keystone and then wakes up, alone and despondent (implied).
Apart from the name and the product, what made you realize it was Keystone Light?
Well, there's Keith Stone, who when I first saw him a couple months ago, I thought was a real country star doing endorsement shots for Keystone. It's the sort of thing that mercenary country stars do, sell their reputations for cheap beer because they hold their fans in a fairly fundamental contempt.
But that's about it. Why not just have everyone else get Bitter Beer Face? I mean, that was at least honest about what Keystone is: beer for people who hate the taste of beer, but can't come up with another way to get drunk slowly.
If you had just seen the commercial and were drinking Keystone Light, how would you feel?
In order to get to that point, I have to assume an epic rager, in which not only have I been drinking for hours, but that it's past the time when anyone could go out and get more beers. So, here we are with that case of Keystone somebody brought and then left (regifted, likely) and I'm drinking Keystone, because what the hell, I'm eight beers in and won't taste it. Then the commercial comes on, and I look at the beer in my hand and realize just then it's a Keystone, because I thought it was Milwaulkee's Best or something, and think, Well, not a single woman I know would go for that greasy hobo, so thank God everyone's so drunk that nobody will remember me drinking this swill.
What does the slogan "Keystone Light: Always Smooth" mean to you, based on the commercial?
Cheap beer. "Smooth" isn't really something to be celebrated in beer, except ironically. You've almost got the irony down with the Keith Stone guy, but you should take it up a notch and use Smoov B from the Onion. It'd be making fun of the "smoothness," turning a detriment into an asset. Instead, it's sort of a fratty generic ad with no actual smoothness. Also, why does Keith Stone have a Spanish accent for only one of his lines? What's that about?
You've answered: Keith Stone is 'not at all smooth.' What makes him 'not at all smooth'?
The lack of positive smoothness.
And then after all that, I get a stupid message about how high volume won't let them process my replies, but that I've already responded. Ah well, at least it's here so random Keystone googlers can find it.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
If you liked it you shoulda put a line on it
Spencer Tweedy does Single Digits, which I plan to stupidly sing all day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)